RAG vs. Lucene: Architecting AI Knowledge Bases for On-Premises Customer Support Systems
Hi everyone, I’m the creator of ShenDesk . For several years, I’ve been dedicated to building this secure, stable, and lightweight customer support system designed specifically for on-premises deployment. Seeing my product put into commercial use by real-world users is both deeply rewarding and the primary fuel for my work. As we move into 2026, I feel this is a turning point. After years of iteration and trial-and-error—especially after last year’s intensive development push (you can see in our changelog that last year's updates exceeded the total of the previous few years combined)—I can now confidently say that ShenDesk has reached high-availability, enterprise-grade maturity. I want to sincerely thank the users who have supported me both professionally and personally throughout this journey. For 2026, I’ve set a new goal: to document the development process of this system through a series of articles. This is partly to step back from the grind of pure coding and re-eng...